The Baking: Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing

Share

For years, I have been laboring under the assumption that this recipe was my aunt's.  This year, I saw it in my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook!  Scandalous!  The dough is very fragile, so the chill time is absolutely necessary.  Make sure you have similarly sized cookie cutters so the baking time is consistent.  The thing I like most about these cookies is that they bake up nice and soft, as opposed to a crunchy, shortbread-like cookie.

You can frost these using the royal icing recipe below or you can use baking sugar to decorate them before baking.  The sugar is definitely easier, but the icing is nice if you're looking for an art project.

The Baking: Haystacks

Share

I make these every Christmas.  The first time people see them, they are usually skeptical, but they taste awesome.  I always make them too big - they're really best if they're a little smaller since they are so rich, but the chow mein noodles cling together, so it's difficult to make them super small.  This is the recipe from the back of the Nestle butterscotch chip bag, omitting the marshmallows and increasing the noodles.

Twelve Beers of Christmas

Share

Between getting married, buying a place and starting school, the past few years have been chaotic swirl of activity. With everything going on (and the amount of money that flew out of our coffers) buying gifts for our friends was impractical, but we still wanted to do something for everyone. Luckily our friends like beer, and eating what we cook, so out of this the Twelve Beers of Christmas party was born.

Spending time with our friends and slowing down even for an evening was the best way we could think to celebrate the holidays and in its second year it is proving to be a great success.  Clare and I cook a bunch of heavy appetizers and we ask everyone to bring a different beer to share.  Then everyone votes for their favorite brew and the winner gets a prize.

It's Still All About Family

Share

Since Joel's family and my family live in different states, we split up Christmas and Thanksgiving.  This year we had Thanksgiving with my family, so we will have Christmas with Joel's family and then see my family over New Year's.  Next year, we will have Thanksgiving with Joel's family and Christmas with mine and so on.  We like this set up because it allows us to see everyone, and we're not always going to Thanksgiving or Christmas with the same family.  On the other hand, it is hard to avoid the feeling of homesickness that accompanies a big holiday with someone else's family.  Don't get me wrong, I love my in-laws (and I'm sure Joel would say the same...right?  right?), but everyone's family celebrates holidays slightly differently.

Basic Must-Have Recipes: Hummus

Share

I didn't start eating hummus until college.  I didn't even know what hummus was until I was at least 20 years old, but once I got into it, there was no stopping me.  We tried a lot of different ways to make it our senior year of dorm living.  My roommate, Cara, was particularly partial to the hummus mix she could get in the "hippie" section of the grocery store for two reasons: it was cheap, and it was really easy to make.  We also tried making it from scratch, but that never really turned out right.  Most of the time, we just bought it in plastic containers like everyone else.  Even now, most people just buy hummus.  I think that's because they don't know how easy or cheap it is to make at home.  It does require a food processor or blender, so that can be a problem if you're working in a limited kitchen. 

This recipe is loosely based on the recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  I have played with it enough to make it my own, and I encourage you to do the same.  The key to good hummus is taste it, taste it, taste it.  Basically every can of garbanzos is different, and every tahini tastes different, and every oil tastes different.  Those three things will make or break your recipe.  Oh, and don't cheap out on the olive oil.  I learned that one the hard way. (recipe after the jump)

A Meatacular Christmas Gift

Share

Some of the best things about being married to Clare are the gifts that her parents give me (us?) each Christmas.  Ever since our first Christmas together her parents have given me a box of country meats: bacon, sausage and ham.  I look forward to this every year and as luck would have it, my gift arrived a little early this year.

Pretzel Quest 2009

Share

I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime over the past year or so pretzel buns have become insanely popular on burgers.  The first pretzel bun that I can vividly remember was on a Corner Bakery ham sandwich at work.  I didn’t realize that it was a pretzel bun until after my first bite and then I had a revelation of what a sandwich could truly be.  The saltiness of the crust combining with the buttery chewiness of the interior took that sandwich to another level of deliciousness.  After that I began to see pretzel buns everywhere: Kuma’s, Hannah’s Bretzel, etc.  At this point I knew I had to take a crack at making these savory buns.

I decided to start my quest by making taking a basic pretzel recipe and making rolls from them. As far as research goes the rolls were delicious, but without some kind of baseline it was hard to know which adjustments to make. That's when I decided to make traditional pretzels for our annual Christmas party.

Christmas Recipes: Sausage Balls

Share

What follows might be the easiest holiday recipe of all time.  It wasn't New Year's or Christmas at our house without sausage balls.  They go especially well with anything bubbly like champagne, beer, or sparkling cider.  I made a batch for our annual beer tasting Christmas Party and they were gone in approximately six seconds.

These are good with regular breakfast sausage from the grocery store, but they are extra-fantastic made with country sausage or homemade breakfast sausage. (recipe after the jump)

It's All About Family

Share

Today I met Thomas Keller.  Originally, Joel wanted to go to the book signing at the State Street Borders, but alas, work called.  There I was, waiting anxiously with a brand new copy of Ad Hoc at Home sitting on my lap, listening to the people behind me talk about Food Network stars when he appeared as if by magic.  He looks just like he does on television.

Before the signing, Chef Keller talked a little bit about Ad Hoc and about the cookbook.  Keller is a world-renowned chef and culinary rock star, but there he sat on the signing table, telling us how he wrote an April Fool's email a few years ago and suddenly had a successful restaurant. It was surreal, to say the least.

Ad Hoc is all about family style meals.  There is no menu there.  You get what the chefs want to cook and that's that.  There is a freedom in that kind of dining, you know.  It's reminiscent of coming home from school and finding out meatloaf was what you were having, and then being happy about that.  I like that Keller is able to take American cuisine to its highest heights with Michelin stars and all that, and also be able to be real about food and what it means, because for most of us, food means family, and gathering, and sharing time together.

I cannot wait to get started on the recipes in the cookbook.  I know that some of them will be out of my grasp, and I know that others will be similar to things I've made before.  No matter what, I'm excited to think about food as a family occasion and take pleasure in the transformation from raw ingredients to beautiful meals.

I got my cookbook signed, inscribed for Joel.  Chef Keller writes it in a beautifully, curly script with a special pen.  Just like his food, it is beautiful, but the inscription contains a message that would be the same if scribbled in crayon: "It's all about family."

Indeed.